There's no sophomore slump on
The Regrettes' latest album,
How Do You Love? The L.A. garage rockers follow up the 2017 critically acclaimed
Feel Your Feelings Fool! with a 15-song ode to the ups and downs of relationships. Although the band's rhythm section has changed hands for this release, charismatic and wise-beyond-her-years lead singer
Lydia Night brings her band back into the spotlight. Filled with punchy punk-pop and occasional hints of '60's doo-wop,
How Do You Love? works as a subtle narrative where Night, at only 18, refreshingly waxes poetic about one of the most common subjects of art: love.
Digging into the songs themselves, the musical stylings are fairly consistent, yet thankfully saved from repetition by Night's emotional lyrics. Most of the tracks clock in at an average of three minutes and could stand out as singles in their own right. "Are You In Love?" kicks off the rhetorical theme in spoken word, asking "Are you in love, do you feel it in your spine... yeah, you need it just to breathe." Then, "California Friends" highlights the butterflies in your stomach feeling at the beginning of a relationship while going to movies and making playlists for each other. Things seem to be going well!
"Dress Up," the lead single, falls just before the halfway mark on the album, mimicking the point in a relationship where things may be heading south; "I made a promise, I might've messed up, I said I'd be there, but I'll play dress up." On "More Than a Month," the narrator is forlorn; longing for a second chance and finding solace in the records of
Joni and
Patsy. The last third of the album brings the emotional rollercoaster to an end with the title track. The relationship is over and Night reflects, opines, and observes "Why do they look so in love? The couple walking by, well, maybe they're on drugs, Don't look too much, I tell myself when I start staring..." A fitting end where the author longs, albeit begrudgingly, to start this process over again, recognizing that relationships can be powerful, tumultuous, but always worth the effort.
Make the effort and watch
The Regrettes bring their energy to
The Foundry in Philadelphia on Saturday, October 5th.
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